Pepian

Ingredients

• Meat – pork, beef, chicken or turkey

• Choose 1 or more meats for this dish as you please. (pork, beef and chicken)

• 2 Carrots

• 3 potatoes

• 1 guisquil / chayote / choko (Can also add green beans)

• 6 small tomatoes

• 2 onions

• 3 garlic teeth

• 1 oz sesame seeds

• 1 oz shelled pumpkin seeds

• 3 chile pasa (dried form of the Chilaca chile)

• 1 chile guajillo

• Cilantro 10 stalks with leaves

• 4 pimienta gorda – fat pepper

• 4 cloves

• 1 oz corn flour

• Salt
   

Preparation of meat

1. Cut meat into small chunks or sizes you desire. Chicken can be cut up into legs, wings and breast.

2. Put meat into pot and cover with water. Add salt for flavor and boil.

3. Save this broth water to add later!

Preparation of vegetables

1. Peel and cut potatoes, chayotes and carrots into halves or quarters for the size you desire.

2. Boil vegetables in pot with some salt for flavor.

3. Note: you can boil the meat and vegetables together to share flavor, we boiled ours separately as we didn’t have a pot big enough to put everything in.
   
   Directions

1. The chile pasa and guajillos need to be deseeded. Cut them open and scrape off the seeds with a knife. The purpose of these two chiles is to give the sauce it’s distictive color and taste. The amount of chile guajillo you put depends on how spicey you want your sauce. We put in the end of our chile about 3 fingers thick.

2. Flatten the chiles out and put on a hoteplate or saucepan to cook. Do not add oil. The intention is to brown them, not fry them. Heat until crisp and brown.

3. Next are the tomatos, onions and garlic. Slice the onions into circles to cook easier. The tomatoes and garlic can be heated whole. If you are using larger tomatoes they can be sliced. Again, heat them without adding oil. Heat the tomatoes until they burst open sizzling. The onions and garlic are ready when browned.

4. Now the sesame and pumpkin seeds. Heat in a saucepan until brown. Separate them when heating because the sesame seeds will brown faster.

5. Next put 1 ounce of corn flour into a saucepan to brown as well. This is to thicken the sauce when we put everything in to blend.

6. Finally heat a large handful of cilantro in a saucepan or hotplate until dried up (it will reduce in size) and brownish.

7. Now everything is roasted and browned and ready to blend!

8. Put all of the above into a blender. Break up the chiles by hand into smaller pieces if needed to fit in the blender.

9. Add some of the broth from boiling the meat into the blender to help blend and blend on high until smooth. This is when you will see the distinctive orange brown color of Pepian! The resulting liquid will be a thick paste.

10. Transfer the blended paste into an empty pot on low heat. Add more broth from boiling the meat and/or vegetables until it has a soup like consistency. Monitor the taste and add salt if necessary.

11. Add the boiled meat and vegetables to the sauce and stir in.

12. Your Pepian is ready to serve!

Pepian is most commonly served with rice and tamalitos. You can add cilantro to Pepian or Pepian can also be served on its own with tortillas or rice.